Thursday, January 25, 2007

How are you spending Australia Day?

The youth of Sydney's West were out in force today, herding themselves towards Olympic Park for the Big Day Out concert. I was on a past peak-hour country train to the city this morning, and it was a slow trip, and standing room only, all the way to Lidcombe! Large crowds were also coming the opposite way when I arrived at Central. I had to smile at the many more people than normal wearing Australian flags like superhero cloaks, as they sailed through the milling throngs. This was in defiance of the organisers' supposed attempt to discourage flag waving at the event, lest it fire up more racial violence.

So how are you spending Australia Day?

As for me, the re-energized Sydney Star Trek Meetup Group's members shall be flocking to Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour, in the late afternoon - hoping to avoid most of the family crowds - to have dinner at Baia restaurant. Have been there once before - and it was excellent, both for food and atmosphere. Italian food on Australia Day, yeah, why not?

It's a far cry from the days of organised ST fandom in Sydney, when we could easily get 100 people to a meeting, but we actually had to cap our RSVPs at 15. So it should be intimate, with about six brand new members, several of whom are new to Australia. So Aussie Trekkers are doing their bit for immigration and multiculturalism, even if John Howard just fired his minister and renamed her portfolio!

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About me

Otherwise known as "Therin of Andor", Ian McLean has had an active association with "Star Trek" and science fiction media fandom in Australia since 1980. Before then he was an avid fan of the "Batman" TV series (60s) and the Australian TV classic, "Number 96" (70s).